New Delhi:
A Delhi court has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for killing a 12-year-old child after being snubbed by his mother, who spurned his sexual advances.
"In the present case, the convict had killed a child by strangulating him, as his mother did not entertain sexual favours to him, which were not to his liking," Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Sanjeev Aggarwal said.
The court refused to show leniency to the convict. "The gruesome manner in which he had killed the deceased, does not call for any leniency. The interest of justice shall be met if the convict is sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life under section 302 (murder) IPC," the judge said. While convicting the man, the court noted that his voter identity card was found near the boy's body, which was recovered from a field near his house at Prem Nagar in North West Delhi on March 9, 2008.
According to the prosecution, Ram Shakal had taken the boy to the field and had strangled him there after torturing him. The boy's naked body was later recovered later with several injury marks on it. A case was registered at Aman Vihar police station and Shakal was arrested from a bus stand in the same area. The child's mother deposed that for a few months, Shakal had resided as a tenant at their Prem Nagar house and she had developed an intimate relation with him. But her husband came to know of it and evicted Ram Shakal from his house. He started living at a nearby place, but she began distancing herself for him, she told the court. The court noted that the child was last seen with the convict and a few days ago when the woman resisted Shakal's sexual advances, he threatened the woman and her husband that he will "finish" the family.
The court said the chain of evidence only leads to the conclusion that "it was only the accused (Shakal) who had committed the murder of the child and no one else and the circumstantial evidence led on the record, is absolutely inconsistent and incompatible with the innocence of the accused."
The prosecution said that Shakal should be given strict punishment so that a strong message is sent to the society. Shakal, in his defence, said that the incident took place on Saturday and he was working in the factory till Sunday morning. The factory owner, though, deposed that the convict had left from the factory on Saturday afternoon and his factory remained closed on Sunday.